Set Aside That Scythe, and Let’s Put on a Show
Charles IsherwoodJuly 21, 2011: Lamenting the overwhelming burden of his job in one lush, soaring number after another, the Grim Reaper sings like a dream in the new musical “Death Takes a Holiday.” As played by the handsome British actor Julian Ovenden, he looks pretty slick too, particularly when he dons the guise of a Russian prince to play hooky from his corpse-culling duties and mingle with some swells in a swanky Italian villa. Small wonder that a voyage into the great unknown holds a strange allure for the imperiled heroine of this gorgeously sung but fusty musical, which opened on Thursday night at the Laura Pels Theater in a Roundabout Theater Company production. (Mr. Ovenden, seen in a preview performance, missed opening night because of illness and is expected back by next week.)
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